Day 2 - Ieper to Albert

Day 2  Ieper - Albert - Hellfire Corner - Messines - Ploegsteert - Fromelles - Vimy Ridge - Moeuvres & Canal du Nord - Barastre - Stormy Trench - Pozieres - Mouquet Farm - Thiepval - Albert

We left Ieper, stopping to take photos of the Ramparts Cemetery, and drove past Hellfire Corner (busy roundabout - not easy to stop and relive the WWI atmosphere), aiming for Messines and Ploegsteert.  At dinner the previous night a local Belgian had told us that Ploegsteert was an under-appreciated cemetery and worth visiting. We stopped briefly (around 10.15am) at the round tower in the Irish Peace Park near Messines, and then again at Ploegsteert Memorial (aka Hyde Park Corner or Plug Street) around 10.30am.  Crossing the border we travelled via Armentieres onwards to Fromelles, and VC Corner by about 11.25.  We stayed a little while, before travelling via Lens to the Canadian National Memorial at Vimy Ridge (arriving around 12.45pm), a hugely impressive vantage point and memorial, where we spent about an hour, including walking through the original trench system around 500m away from the main splendid memorial. 

Vimy Ridge - original trench positions - unexploded bombs still in grassy surrounds

Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge

To make up some time we drove on the A26 tollway to Moeuvres via Marquion, and drove around Moeuvres trying to find the location where my maternal grandfather's machine gun nest was located above the Canal du Nord, in the epic Battle of Cambrai German counter-attack on 30 November 1917.  We were fairly confident we found the approximate position, thanks to a detailed description of the landscape in Captain Eric Bird's book "Machine Gunner on the Somme".  Some of the local residents must have wondered what we were doing as we drove up and down streets and rural roads, and clambered in and out of the car with our book and map in hand. We spent from about 2-3.30pm around the area, on both sides of the canal, as it was very moving to re-read the vivid description of the battle in Bird's book, for which he received an MC, and my grandfather was nominated for one.  It was easy to place the action on the landscape around us.  

Near Moeuvres - grandfather's machine gun position on 30 November 1917 - Battle of Cambrai

We then drove a few kilometres down the road to try and find the site of a large crater, which featured in a story about my grandfather in Bird's book, apparently located near the cross-road of the Bapaume-Cambrai road and the Dermicourt-Moeuvres road.  I wandered around the cross road for a while until I finally realised that the huge weedy hole right next to it must be the crater.  I think the road must have been relocated slightly because of the crater after the war.  Again, a moving moment to realise the peril my grandfather had been in near this very spot in late November 1917.  

Crater near Moeuvres at cross-roads - trees growing from centre of big crater

We drove then a few kilometres past Velu Woods to find Barastre.  Somewhere in the fields near Barastre my English grandfather received a 'Blighty wound' on 23 March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive. A few kilometres away we located Stormy Trench, just outside Gueudeaucourt, and quite near a Canadian Newfoundland Memorial, where my maternal great-uncle was killed in a raid on 21 February 1917.  The line of the trench is slightly visible amongst the fields, but not really possible to walk along. 

Ploughed field including Stormy Trench, near Gueudecourt - where my great-uncle was killed

Newfoundland Memorial, near Stormy Trench, near Gueudecourt

A few kilometres away is the Pozieres Windmill memorial, and across the road is the Tank Memorial. 

Windmill Memorial, Pozieres

British Tank Corps Memorial, opposite Windmill Memorial at Pozieres

After paying our respects here, we drove along towards the Thiepval Memorial, past Mouquet Farm.

Mouquet Farm AIF Memorial, near Pozieres

Albert was close by and we arrived around 6.30pm.  Being spring, the evenings are light until reasonably late so we were able to accomplish a lot during daylight hours.